Monday, August 01, 2005

Indians in Britain

Ravi Shankar plays at the BBC Proms this week. In an interview with the Guardian, he expresses annoyance at the halo of mysticism and spirituality that surrounds him in the West: 'The spiritual thing which is important in our music is mostly in the first 10 minutes or so of a piece...It's very serene and relaxing, but it doesn't mean all our music is spiritual. There's a lot of playfulness, a lot of romance, a lot of sadness, a lot of fun and a lot of virtuosity, so it's a very whole thing. People here think our music is all spiritual and religious. That's bunk. It's a cliché.'

A comparative review of the promise of argumentation and reason in the works of Amartya Sen and V.S. Naipaul.